10 Great Midnight Movies You Need To Watch

The Western genre is one of the oldest and most popular to come out of Hollywood. But the mid 60s and 70s saw a change to the traditional western; gone were the days of John Wayne, replaced by a sub-genre that included Spaghetti Westerns. The term ‘Acid Western’ was coined by critic Pauline Kael to describe Alejandro Jodorowsky’s visually compelling, El Topo thanks to its counterculture and otherworldly nature.

El Topo sees the director also star as a mysterious gunslinger who wanders the vast desert, encountering a number of bizarre and life changing characters. The controversy stems from a number of factors; first, its religious symbolisms and its countercultural messages weren’t taken too kindly by a number of critics, including Gene Siskel. The second complaint comes from the many disturbing scenes, which included the use of dead animals.

The controversy led to the film not being accepted as a nominee for the 44th Academy Awards, despite being put forward as Mexico’s entry. It also couldn’t be viewed outside of arthouses for decades, until it was recently released on DVD.

While a number of critics and the Academy turned their backs on it, it managed to attract small audiences primarily in New York and before long it was enjoying underground success across the midnight screenings. The following decades have been kinder however. It has inspired a number of artists and filmmakers, most famously inspiring Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man.